Study of the photocatalytic activity of irradiated WO3 microparticles

The work is devoted to the study of the effect of irradiation of commercial WO3 microparticles with low-energy helium ions on the structural properties and photocatalytic activity during the decomposition of organic dyes. The irradiation fluences of 1x10(13)-10(15) ion/cm(2) were selected so that the number of defect overlap areas corresponded from 10 to 1000, but helium inclusions were not formed. It was found that with an increase in the radiation dose to 1015 ion/cm(2), partial degradation of the structural properties of microparticles is observed due to destruction of the surface layer and subsequent amorphization. Photocatalytic tests showed that for the initial microparticles not exposed to irradiation, the degree of decomposition of the indigo carmine dye was no more than 45-50% after 300 min, while for irradiated microparticles with a fluence of 10(13) ion/cm(2), complete decomposition was observed after 200 min, and for microparticles irradiated 10(14) ion/cm(2), complete dye decomposition is observed after 270 min. Partial amorphization upon irradiation with 10(15) ion/cm(2) leads to a decrease in the degree of decomposition and a decrease in photocatalytic activity. In the case of decomposition of the congo red dye, the initial microparticles amounted to no more than 20% of the initial composition. For modified microparticles, an increase in the degree of decomposition is observed up to 45-50%.